Engaging with American Furniture: Looking Back, Moving Forward Symposium: From Appreciation to Interpretation: Academic Engagement with American Furniture

Edward Cooke, chair and Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts, Yale University. This symposium honored the newly unveiled installation Masterpieces of American Furniture from the Kaufman Collection, 1700–1830, the first major presentation of early American furniture and related decorative arts on permanent public view in the nation’s capital. The installation highlights nearly one-hundred examples from the distinguished collection of George M. and Linda H. Kaufman, acquired over the course of five decades and promised to the National Gallery of Art. Academics and curators discuss the fine art of American furniture and decorative arts and its future study in these lectures recorded on March 22 and 23, 2013.